The works I made at the start of my career rely on the themes of war, atomic power, and outer space.

I stopped worrying about competition in contemporary art. It feels a little bit more pure. That's where I am, one step back.

In the West, it's just a given that art exists in this high-class place. But in Japan, there's no high class. The minute you come out, you're low class.

When I was little, I guess I was just an ordinary kid. But then things changed when I was in junior high. You know, kids that become geeks become one because of something. Like, they aren't good at sports, or girls don't like them. I, too, for some reason, got into things like science fiction and, well, especially science fiction as an escape.

In general, I think, U.S. policies remain constant, going back to the Second World War. But the capacity to implement them is declining.

Finally, when the money was high enough, the script suddenly revealed itself as being very clear to me.

I didn't have a financial need, and I wasn't very gifted at relationships. I probably was more like what we think of boys as being: hard to pin down and wary of commitment.

The revival of the U.S. financial system after the crash of 2008 is arguably the Obama administration's biggest domestic policy success.